{"id":24523,"date":"2023-06-12T12:43:45","date_gmt":"2023-06-12T16:43:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=24523"},"modified":"2023-07-18T16:07:59","modified_gmt":"2023-07-18T20:07:59","slug":"episode-833-the-night-dance-where-i-nearly-got-punched-out-or-worse-parkdale-c-i-1963","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=24523","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 833 THE NIGHT DANCE WHERE I NEARLY GOT PUNCHED OUT OR WORSE parkdale c.i. 1963"},"content":{"rendered":"
EPISODE 833     THE NIGHT DANCE WHERE I NEARLY GOT PUNCHED OUT OR WORSE<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
June 2023<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\"1950\"Pin<\/div>\n
In 1963, Jameson Avenue was lined with tall elm trees\u2026very dark at night.  The boys in the picture are not the boys who mouthed off to me, but look like them.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
My first high school dance.   The first dance i was the teacher in charge.<\/div>\n
Tihisdid not go well.   A bunch of older boys arrived and lit up cigarettes in the<\/div>\n
hall of Parkdale C.I.  A challenge.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\u201cGet rid of those cigarettes.,\u201d I said loudly but nervously.<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo smoking in the school.\u201d<\/div>\n
(mumbling response with the  \u201cf\u201d word used liberallly or so I thought.)<\/div>\n
\u201cOK boys, get out of here. You are not Parkdale students.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWe would like to see you make us leave\u2026.paid our money.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cGet out.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cBig tough teacher.  All talk.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cOut you go!\u201d  <\/div>\n
(This was my first school dance.   My first year teaching.  I was not much<\/div>\n
older than the boys who were joking and mouthing  off to me.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThink you are a tough guy, don\u2019t you.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cGet out!\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cBet you haven\u2019t got the guts to come out with us to Jameson Avenue.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
That was where I made a big mistake.  I escorted the tough guys out <\/div>\n
to the dark street where they began to encircle me.   This spelled trouble.<\/div>\n
I was about to get mugged and could do nothing about it. The encircling<\/div>\n
was nearly complete when a wonderful thing happened.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\u201cHaving any trouble Mr Skeoch?\u201d, came the voice of Ted Spencer who knew<\/div>\n
I was in over my head.  He had a couple of other big guys with him.<\/div>\n
They were prepared to back me up should push come to punch.<\/div>\n
Rescuers.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
The tough guys melted into the darkness of Jameson Avenue.  I have never<\/div>\n
forgotten that evening.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Another new teacher, Alison Petrie, and my wife Marjorie were also present<\/div>\n
and had their own kind of trouble.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Two boys struck up a conversation.  \u201cSo Miss Petrie, you came to Ontario from<\/div>\n
New Brunswick\u2026how do you like teaching?\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
While one boy talked the other stood behind Alison and slowly un zipped her dress.<\/div>\n
Not completely unzipped but down enough to see her brassiere straps.  She was<\/div>\n
scared but remained calm.   These boys were just kidding around but it<\/div>\n
seemed far worse to Alison and Marjorie.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Hard to forget that first night dance in October 1963.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\"Parkdale<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Ted Spencer was a member of Parkdale football team in 1963.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EPISODE 833     THE NIGHT DANCE WHERE I NEARLY GOT PUNCHED OUT OR WORSE alan skeoch June 2023 In 1963, Jameson Avenue was lined with tall elm trees\u2026very dark at night.  The boys in the picture are not the boys who mouthed off to me, but look like them. My first high school dance. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}